Co-creating cyberspace governance: A boundary critique perspective on digital participation and policy legitimacy

Background: Cyberspace governance has become a complex socio-technical field where sovereignty, cybersecurity, digital participation, and policy legitimacy intersect. Although previous studies have extensively examined digital sovereignty, e-participation, and co-creation, limited attention has been paid to how boundary judgments shape stakeholder inclusion, decision authority, knowledge recognition, and legitimacy in cyberspace governance, particularly in the Iranian context.Aims: This study aims to examine how Critical Systems Heuristics (CSH) can reveal and reconstruct the boundary judgments shaping co-created cyberspace governance, digital participation, and policy legitimacy in Iran.Methodology: A qualitative exploratory case study design was adopted, drawing on semi-structured interviews with ۲۶ experts and analysis of policy, regulatory, and strategic documents. Data were analyzed using Ulrich and Reynolds’ CSH framework by distinguishing current “is” conditions from desirable “ought to be” arrangements across the dimensions of motivation, control, knowledge, and legitimacy.Findings: The analysis indicates that current cyberspace governance is primarily bounded by security, sovereignty, infrastructural control, regulatory authority, and technical expertise. However, affected stakeholders, including citizens, digital businesses, educators, researchers, civil society actors, vulnerable groups, and future generations, remain weakly represented in governance processes.Conclusion: The study argues that legitimate cyberspace governance requires a transition from primarily control-oriented arrangements toward structured co-creation based on stakeholder inclusion, plural knowledge, transparent accountability, and participatory boundary governance.

کلیدواژه ها:

boundary critique ، Critical Systems Heuristics ، Cyberspace Governance ، digital participation ، policy legitimacy